The talk this week among the stylists at my luxury hair salon in Manhattan was about a hair dryer. I know: say what? Is this what we’ve come to, that the joyous gossip of the beauty salon has been reduced to a discussion about styling appliances? Banish the day!
Jennifer Lawrence. Secretary Colin Powell. John Podesta. Amy Pascal. Ian Mellul. Are you next?
OK, I’ll confess it up front: I’m a very late convert to being a pro football fan. As a lifelong girly girl, I only started paying serious attention to the sport a few years ago. According to ESPN, about half of all Americans currently describe themselves as football fans. It’s the most popular sport in the country. Like the 17 million Americans who watch a game during an average fall weekend, I’m kind of hooked (compare that to only 11 million who watched the Emmys this year). And of course, like any recent convert to a new religion, I can’t stop proselytizing.
In a recent post, we here at Dandelion Chandelier explored the continued adoption of body modifications like tattoos and multiple piercings by the luxury class. There’s a tech angle that we left unexplored then, and it’s the next chapter of the story: the widespread use of temporary tattoos as a fashion statement, even by the wealthiest among us, has recently been married with some fascinating new technologies. Smart skin is here. And it’s pretty cool.
Talk to them long enough, and you’ll hear an interesting undercurrent running through the conversations of many highly wealthy people: despite the bravado that many project externally, internally they feel quite vulnerable. They are deeply concerned with security, and with minimizing their dependence on outsiders or on the government for anything related to the health and safety of themselves and their families. With all due respect to John Donne, some people want to be an island unto themselves, and they have the means to make it happen.
